New Curse, Old Enemy
by TheREALmockingjay
Summary: Life as a half-blood has been a lot of training and not much questing. Ever since the 7 hero's defeated Gaia 13 years ago not much has been going on. That's until an old enemy returns seeking revenge, armed with a new curse that could destroy Olympus once and for all. As demi-gods all over the country are divided in war, can a new generation of hero's stop the curse in it's tracks?
1. Chapter 1

**It's a funny world we live in. One minute you're sitting around a camp fire singing songs about Jupiter and his lightning sword with your best friends, and the next you're fighting for your life against the very same people. And yes, I mean my world. The world I live in. The world of the most amazing experiences and adventures you could ever wish for… but also the world of the most dangerous and darkest quests. It's a world of happiness and love, but also of pain and hurt. A lot of hurt.**

I look over at Dom. We smile at each other and he mouths "1,2…3!" and we run! We've done this a million and one times but it never gets old. We charge onto the Fields of Mars and are instantly joined by an army of incredibly enthusiastic twelve year olds. I look up and see Abigail and Alex running towards us from the opposite side of the field with an equally enthusiastic bunch. Our two groups meet and the children instantly begin sparring and wrestling. I go over to Alex and point my sword at his chest. "You not gonna fight me" I laugh.

"In front of all these kids, I don't think your little friends could take seeing their amazing tutor impaled into the field. Would probably affect the confidence their parents have in their learning"

"Is that so" I raise my eye brows. He lunges. Of course, I dodge. His lunge was slow and poorly aimed but it looked impressive. That's the game. Make the children think it's real, set a good example, but don't get carried away, which is easier said than done. We are natural rivals, a son of Zeus against a daughter of Neptune, a Greek against a Roman.

The children continue to fight around us as we pretend to have a very dramatic and very intense duel. Then a young boy from Alex's team, I think his name is Henry, comes up behind me. I pretend not to notice him. Then I feel a jab in back from his blunt sword we use in training. "Arrrgghhh" I scream and pretend to fall to the floor. "We have won" Alex shouts holding his sword up to the sky. A chorus of cheers erupts from Alex and Abigail's group. At this moment Dom comes running up the field with my little army and the children collectively throw themselves into Alex, pushing him to the floor. "Not so soon!" one shouts.

After practice, Me and Dom wander down to the river. Dom doesn't usually teach the younger children. Usually me and Abigail run the Field of Mars training for the under 13's, but since Alex was visiting from Camp Half Blood, and insisted on being on the opposing team to me, Dom had stepped in to make things even. "So" He says "Alex?"

"Alex?" I reply, puzzled.

"You and him, I could see the looks he was giving you when you were sparring earlier"

"Oh yeah" I reply with sarcasm in my voice. "I feel like they were looks of vengeance and "why can't I fight this Roman properly""

"They we're definitely **not** fighting looks" He continues. "I've seen the 'I wish this Roman would fight me properly' look, and that was not it"

"Well" I sigh "I guess you'll just have to be jealous then"

"Jealous!" He says mockingly horrified. "Jealous of perfect Alexander Thomas, with his prefect blonde hair and tanned muscular arms…" He stares of into the distance. I push him laughing. "You're highly annoying you know Dominic Edward Clarke"

He mocks my weak British accent "You're highly annoying you know Elzena Carter". I give him my death stare and he stops. We keep walking towards to river in comfortable silence. I do feel comfortable around Dom. We've known each other since forever. Well that's how it feels, life before camp doesn't feel like it really happened. This life I all I've really known. I arrived here when I was 7. My Mum brought me saying she couldn't do it anymore and wanted nothing more to do with me. It turns out she had no idea who my Dad really was and after a drunken night of… well you know what, she ended up falling pregnant with the child of a Roman god. Of course, being the god his is, he had to tell her the truth before I was born. There was no way a child of Neptune would go un-noticed by the monsters for long, especially so soon after the attempted rise of Gaia. Then, rather that telling either of the camps about me, he decided to send my Mum to the UK where I was born, hence where my accent came from. I don't remember much about living in England. I don't remember even being attacked by monsters, you don't really get them in England, which is why I was sent there. There must have been enough to scare my Mum off me though. No one knows how, but by the time I was 7 she had tracked down Camp Jupiter and she turned up one day, told them who my father was and then left. There was a huge uproar. First, Zeus had a child right before the end of the war with Gaia and managed to hide him, now Neptune had had another right after the war.

Anyway, so that's how I met Dom. I was a scared seven year old in this huge new world. The other kids knew who I was, everyone did. Some kids thought it was really cool! Other weren't so welcoming. Dom was different. Dom is a son of Mercury and is pretty much the most standard Roman demi-god ever. His abides by all the rules and is an incredible fighter. I remember that even then, aged 10, he had the same big brown eyes and curly light brown hair. He took me under his wing and taught me how to fit in. 12 years later, we no longer serve the legion as warriors, but as teachers, guards and ambassadors.

We reach the river bank and sit on the grass. It's a warm summer's day and camp is in full swing. Most of our campers stay year round but we have a lot of Greek demi-gods who visit us on exchange throughout the summer months so things are a little more hectic than usual. Especially since the Greeks are soooo much more unorganised then we are.

"Do you ever see more than camp?" Dom asks

I sigh, I know what conversation is about to happen. "Outside huh?" I ask him

"Yeah, the mortal world" He stares of into the rolling hills that surround the camp. "Imagine a life where you could go to college, find someone, fall in love, have kids… normal kids" he stops speaking.

We sit in silence for a few minutes. "I recon I could you know"

I look at him "what?"

"Live in the mortal world. You did and your Dad's Neptune! I'm sure a child of Mercury could easily go un-noticed. Especially if I moved to another country… maybe Australia"

"I was really young Dom, I mean, you probably could, kids from Camp Half blood do during the school year."

"Would you miss me?" He asks looking back at me.

I smile "Of course I would, you've been like a brother to me these last twelve years"

"You could come too?" He suggests quietly. He already knows the answer.

"There's no life for me out there. Living in England when I was 7 was clearly too much. I'm happy here anyway, I love teaching and I'm close to Percy"

We sit and watch the sun set in the distance.


	2. Chapter 2

The only bad thing about transferring older demi-gods between camps to teach the younger generation is the meetings. I've been to Camp Half Blood and my gods they know how to throw a meeting! They sit around a ping pong table and eat potato chips. If you're lucky they'll even have dips with it. At Camp Jupiter it's a little more formal. I sit around the big oak table with all the other exchange campers. Alex sits opposite me with the Greeks. He keeps kicking me in the shin and grinning. We all stand as our praetors Reyna and Frank enter. They are followed by Percy Jackson, Annabeth Chase, Jason Grace and Nico DiAngelo.

"Please be seated" Frank says and we all sit down again, the Greeks spend a little bit more time trying to shuffle their chairs closer to the table. "We're all here today to discuss the agenda for the final senior camper transfer of the summer" Frank begins. "As you know, we currently have Alexander with us from Camp Half-Blood, joined by Callum, son of Ares, Charlotte, daughter of Hypnos and Logan, son of Hephaestus. We are planning to have our friends from Camp Half-Blood return to long island with three of our senior Roman campers."

This surprised everyone a little as the final transfer was supposed to be another group visiting Camp Jupiter from Camp Half-Blood. "We've decided to send Abigail and Elzena to help teaching battle field skills, since they have done such a good job teaching the younger campers here." Abigail grins at me. "We're also going to send Marcus, son of Apollo." Everyone's heads turn to look at Marcus. Marcus sits at the end of the table away from everyone else. He slowly looks up as if he's just woken up from a sleep and nods at Frank. Marcus has never been sociable. He's been here way longer than me or Dom has, he's quite a bit older. He likes to keep to himself to himself and usually wanders around the camp perimeter all day. Apparently he's checking the boarder defences are working, since he works in camp defence, but there's something strange about him. This would be an interesting trip.

The meeting then moves onto different topics, like which kids were moving up into more advanced groups for training, who was in charge of keeping curfew this week and upcoming full camp activities.

That night me, Dom, Alex, Callum and Abigail sit in the empty dining room. Dom's been really quiet since he knew I was leaving for a bit. I think after the talk we have at the river the other day he's jealous that I'm going to get out of camp for a little. Technically he no longer serves the legion so he could leave at any time if he wanted to… but I know it's not that easy. I try and keep the topic of conversation away from the trip so Dom doesn't feel left out but it doesn't work. "So what do you make of that Marcus coming back to Camp Half Blood with us" asks Alex.

"I don't think I've ever actually had a conversation with him" Abigail joins in.

"What exactly does he do around here?" Says Alex

"He plays a very important part in the security and defence of the camp" a stern voice comes from behind me. I turn and see Jason standing in the doorway, the moon light illuminates his silhouette from outside of the open dining room door. "Jason" Alex nods.

"How are you brother?" Jason replies.

"Yeah I'm pretty good" Alex leans backwards and stretches his arms behind his head. He's always had a strange relationship with his brother. I think it's almost a rivalry; Jason went on so many quests when he was Alex's age. He was younger than Alex when he played huge roles in the wars against the Titans and Gaia. However, these days there's not much of that going on and Alex hasn't had chance to prove that he's just as good or important.

"I'm glad to hear it" Jason smiles his sideways smile and turns to look at me. "El, could I have a word?" Everyones eyes turn to look at me.

"Sure" I stand up and head out of the door. Jason follows me out. "Whats up" I say when we're out of ear shot. I'm not scared of Jason. He did most of our training when we first got to camp. Jason and Hazel Lavesque taught me everything I know about fighting.

"I'm not really supposed to let you know that anything's up…" Jason begins. I get Goosebumps. If Jason's breaking rules to tell me something he's not supposed to then something really is up.

"There's rumour of a curse Ella. A curse that can only affect children of the big three. So far that stands at me, Percy, Nico, Hazel, Alex and you. And since the rest of us know I thought it was right to tell you and Alex. Reyna didn't want you and Alex knowing, she has big plans for your training and some quests with the legion and the idea that this curse could be enacted is so farfetched that she didn't think it would be necessary for you to know… and the person they think may be trying to enact it… El, no ones really worried but I would rather you be on your guard." He pauses. He seams really anxious about the whole thing.

"What do you mean by curse?" I ask. He sighs and looks at me like this is the part he was dreading.

"It's an ancient curse, Annabeths been studying lost curses recently, the ones that you don't hear about in Mythology. This specific curse was, of course, designed by those who opposed the gods in the ancient times. It's like the way we had Gaia and her giants that were all designed to fight a specific god… well clearly we kicked their butts and the giants failed, but this is another thing all together." He pauses and I look at him intently. I want to know more but he looks like he's putting of telling me about it.

"The curse allows an enemy to make a god, out of a demi god." He crosses his arms as he says this. It's almost like he's trying to cover himself but he doesn't want to come off as weak so he masks it as looking smart and regal. "One demi god child of each of the eldest gods, can be turned into a god, to oppose them" It takes me a few minuets to think about what he's said in total. I don't really understand. I know that the gods themselves can turn us into gods if they wanted. Everyone knows the story of Percy and how the gods offered to make him one of them but he declined.

"How does it work?" I eventually ask.

"That's the part we're struggling with" He replies "It's also another reason Rayner didn't want you knowing just yet, we don't have all the details. But we do know the first stage, which is actually pretty helpful. The curse was hidden in the ancient times. It was hidden in the ruins of a temple in a remote mountainous area of Grece. To intact the curse, someone with godly blood in them must enter the temple and retrieve the curse by sacrificing the thing that they treasure most. Once that's been done the curse becomes there's to use on a demi god child of the big three." He looks back into my eyes. "There's more to it once they have the demi god that they want to change into a god but we don't know it yet"

"and has someone found the temple?" I reply

"We have reason to believe that someone's looking for it and that they intend to use one, or more, of us to wage a war against the gods"


	3. Chapter 3

It's gone midnight and I'm sat up in my bunk. I can't sleep anymore. I haven't slept for the last three nights since Jason told me about the curse. I've spent my day reading all the books I can find in the hope of finding new information, but I guess Annabeth has already hidden them all. It's driving me insane. I'm starting to worry about this trip to Camp Half-Blood. I know that Jason said the curse hasn't even been found yet but I'm becoming paranoid. I am **not** becoming a tool in someone's game. I've spent all my life training for quests and missions but nothing like this, nothing where I can become the weapon. I try to calm down. There's no reason to worry. The chances are that nothing will happen, and whoever is looking for the curse will fail. I lean against the bunk ladder and sigh. "Are you okay El?" I jump out of my skin! I look around, but it's just Sasha, another girl that I share a cabin with. I live in a cabin with some of the other girls who have left the legion but have stayed on to help train the younger ones rather than moving to New Rome like most people do when they leave the legion. Like most of the girls here, she is a bit older than me, but we're all pretty close.

"Yeah I'm okay" I try and smile. Sasha sits next to me. Her hair is long and brown, a bit like mine, but hers is cut choppy, like she's trying to show she doesn't care about her appearance. It's typical of a daughter of Mars. "You've been awake every night for the last few days, you've been in the library none stop and I haven't seen you eat." She looks at me sternly.

"You've been watching me?" I joke. She doesn't smile; she just looks over to the window.

"You've been blocking the light from the window sitting here every night." I join her in looking at the little slit in the side of the concrete cabin walls. "Oh" I say looking back at her. I always liked having the top bunk right next to the window but I didn't realise that other people enjoyed the moonlight coming through it too. "Sorry" I say jumping down from the bunk. She jumps down after me.

"Where are you going?" She asks.

"I need a walk" I reply. "And I wouldn't want to block your light". Sasha stands there and watches as I grab my camp hoodie and walk out. I didn't mean to come across as rude but I'm tired and I need answers and I can't be bothered dealing with petty things like blocking someone's light. I storm though the camp. It's an eerie place at night. The only light comes from the candles lit outside every cabin, and the moon. I'm in such a mood that I don't even notice the figure stood on the track in front of me. I almost walk into him. "Marcus?" I say looking up at him.

"Elzena" He nods.

"What are you doing up?" I ask, trying to act casual.

"I'm on patrol duty for the cohort cabins, what are you doing?" He has an authoritative tone to his voice. "I'm going on a walk" I say and try to walk past him. He puts his hand on my shoulder and stops me. "At this time?" He questions.

"Yeah at this time" I say not looking at him.

"It's a little late don't you think?" I don't respond. I just stand there staring down the dark track with Marcus's hand on my shoulder. "We've got a long journey tomorrow Elzena, you need your sleep." I completely forgot that tomorrow was the day we travel to Camp Half-Blood. "That's my choice" I reply and shrug his hand off me as I continue to walk the way I was going.

I can't believe that creep is coming with us to Camp Half-Blood. I don't understand. He just works in security and would definitely not fit in around the Greeks.

I finally leave the camp boundaries and head towards the river. I can see the water glittering in the moonlight. It's so still and perfect tonight. There's a slight, warm breeze and I can smell the pine trees. I sit down and put my bare feet in the water, exactly like I did the other day. I think back to when I was here with Dom, nearly a week ago now.

I'm going to miss him when I go away tomorrow. I'm going to be gone a month! That's a long time not too see someone you've grown up with. I wish he could come with me but he's never stood out at camp. Is that horrible of me to think? He's just never tried to be anything special. It's like he wants to blend in as much as he can in the hopes that one day he'll be normal enough to leave. At least he has a chance.


End file.
